“XIX” seems to face the fact that two people together are not necessarily a miracle but the result of work. Rich wants a daily life in Manhattan. Here, she expresses her desire for what she has wanted from the first. It seems that Cliff may be pulling away as the two get closer to coming out together, and “XIX” seems to be addressing it. This is Rich’s ultimatum poem, and she explains that being together is “heroic in its ordinariness” (15). “XX” is still exploring the conversation with Cliff – a conversation that they are “always on the edge / of having” (1-2). The woman that Rich loves is “drowning in secrets, fear wound around her throat / and choking her like hair” (7-8). The pain that this woman feels “is dragged down deeper / where it cannot hear” (10-11) Rich. It seems that this may be the same pain that Rich has expressed in earlier poems – the pain of separation and restriction – as Rich concludes acknowledging that she “was talking to my own soul” (12). That soul could be Rich’s as she continues to present her case for coming out. It could also be Cliff’s as Rich’s soulmate. “XXI” returns the reader to the “cleft of light” (4) of “XVIII” evoking the miracle of two people being together. Rich can choose to share her solitude and be “without loneliness” (8). The choice isn’t easy. There is pain, but Rich will stand out in the light that others may consider darkness. She proclaims her womanhood, and she ends the series of poems with her choice to walk into the light. “And to draw this circle” (15). The circle is a symbol of wholeness and infinity. It has no beginning and no end, and it encompasses Rich and her love for Cliff. “Twenty One Love Poems,” which were published in The Dream of a Common Language, seek to find an expression for the repression and restraint that is required by a society that does not acknowledge the sexual bond between two people of the same gender and the anger that springs from the inherent unfairness of the situation.

The poems also seek to find a language that men and women of any sexual orientation can understand. That language starts with the commonplace experience between any two people that is love. When people approach every relationship with love as their first thoughts, they are more likely to find common grounds that will help them understand each other regardless of their sexualities.